Friends of Mount Field and Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service held a working bee in February to tackle a number of tasks along the Tarn Shelf Circuit ahead of this year's turning of the Fagus.
This endemic and deciduous plant puts on a brilliant show of colour before dropping its leaves for the winter. The event sees an increase of visitors to the beautiful alpine tracks of Mount Field National Park, including the Tarn Shelf Circuit.
Ten enthusiastic volunteers were to start the day with meeting at Lake Dobson carpark for a safety briefing, but this didn't quite go to plan - the road had been blocked by a large tree that had fallen during the night!
Volunteers and Rangers putting their teamwork skills on show during a recent working bee
The Mount Field Ranger team, who are no strangers to working with the unpredictability of nature, quickly changed course and shifted the group's focus to some much needed weed control around the National Park's Visitor Centre and campground while the tree was removed. The volunteers worked hard to remove Californian thistles, a difficult weed to control due to the plant's root being able to stretch several metres below the soil.
After ninety minutes of thistle blitzing, the tree had been removed and the team had managed to fill two large bulk bags with weeds.
Making repairs to a damaged section of boardwalk
Despite the small hiccup in the day's plan, the volunteers were undeterred and made their way up to Lake Dobson and onwards to the Tarn Shelf and Rodway hut track to work on replacing around sixty damaged boards along the boardwalk and trimming overhanging vegetation.
Friends of Mount Field working bees are held monthly. If you would like to get involved, please visit the
NRE Tas website.
Learn more about Friends of Mount Field and the incredible work they do.